Busan is good

World’s largest seabed tunnel completed in Korea

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Geoga Bridge (Photo: Yonhap News)

 

Daewoo Construction announced that it has successfully linked the last section of underwater tunnel for Geoga Bridge in the city of Geoje, Gyeongsangnam-do on Monday, Sept. 13.

The Geoga Bridge project is a massive effort to build a direct roadway between the cities of Geoje and Busan. Nearly 4 kilometers of the 8.2km road lie under the sea.

The immersed tube method, which connects ready-made tunnel segments underwater, has been used before outside Korea, but this is the first time the technique has been used domestically. It is also the first time the immersed tube method has been used in an area with strong winds and currents. The tunnel is 48-meters below the surface, making it one of the deepest of its kind.

Daewoo Construction received five international patents for the techniques it developed for the build. These patents include methods used to inject air in the linking process, double joint construction, and new methods to increase the size of the tunnel.

 

The government allocated a budget of 1.9 trillion won for overall construction of the road, which is 94 percent complete. The entire Geoga Bridge project is expected to be completed by December of this year.

Once the bridge is open to the public, it will cut down the travel distance from Geoje to Busan from the existing 140 kilometers to 60km, and travel time will be reduced from 130 minutes to 50 minutes. The new road will also link with two other highways connecting Daejeon and Tongyeong and Daegu and Busan, helping to stimulate the regional economy.

 

The source of news: Korea.net